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Happy 2013, think like a child, dream big!

Today I sat with my two eldest children and began a new New Years Eve tradition. We took a huge sheet of paper and on one side wrote “Thank you 2012 for…” and listed all the things we enjoyed and appreciated about the past year. It was heart-warming to see their responses, it showed me how happy and thriving my children are despite the upheaval of divorce in their young lives.

We then went on to write a wish list for 2013 on the other side of the page.

My younger son,7, did this with all the carefree ease of a child who believes anything is possible. “Meet the man in the moon” “Fly in a space rocket” and “Go whale riding” were all goals he didn’t think twice about writing down! My elder son, who is 9, struggled a bit more. He got restricted by what he believed was possible and couldn’t think of what to write, or he would write something and then cross it out. So I told him “don’t limit yourself, you never know what may be possible, but if you tell yourself you can’t have it, you will make that true”.

So he relaxed, and he wrote that he wanted to be able to do magic, and to go to Australia, and to fly. And for my little boy, who has a very literal mind, those are big, big wishes. But whether they come true or not, (and admittedly they require a big leap of faith!), just allowing himself to ask for what he wanted was so good for him. When I told him there were no limits he immediately let go, his shoulders dropped, he smiled, and enjoyed the idea of wanting something. He felt positive.

So, at this time of year when we so often set goals and resolutions, maybe we should do it a bit differently. Think like a child and set them big! Don’t fixate on whether they are achievable or not, just enjoy the expansive feeling of asking for something wonderful, impossible, almost!

Miracles can happen, dreams can come true. But if they don’t, at least you have opened yourself up to the possibility and sparked some positivity in your soul.